this is south carolinian south . people are doing flash mobs in central park doing the dance. britney spears is crazy for him. wanted to learn how to do it. there you go. that's it for "the five." have a great day. ♪ ♪ >> bret: the bodies of four americans murdered at the u.s. consulate in benghazi, libya, returning home. good evening. i'm bret baier. we'll have more from that somber ceremony in a minute. a morning that began with friday prayers turned in to a day with americans under assault on several continents. fires burning. tear gas flowing. bullets flying around u.s. embassies. the questions tonight focus on security.

what warnings the president and his administration may have had of the deadly attack on the libyan consulate on september 11. a day that should have sent off alarm bells to begin with. rosenfeld is at the state department and he looks at coverage of breaking news in the past hour of joint american british military base in afghanistan. good evening. >> good evening. spokesman for joint command in afghanistan tells fox news this hour about an attack that just occurred at camp bastion, camp letterneck that is said to have involved rockets attack and mortar fire that may have caused fatalities. we're running down the details. whatever the details, the case is tonight, president obama and secretary of state clinton confront a situation where americans are under attack across the globe. >> in tunisia, birthplace of the arab spring, several thousand demonstrators near the embassy in capital of tu

tunis, come scaling the compound -- some scaling the compound wall. they used arson to destroy a school vacant for the day. state television reported three dead, 28 injured. senior u.s. official told fox news the tunisia police did, "precisely what they should." in khartoom, rioters torched thegerman embassy and attacked the u.s. embassy as well, hoisting islamic flag in place of the stars and stripes. in cairo, area near the u.s. embassy and tahrir square throbbed with tension for another day. as riot police used tear gas to disburse crowds. egyptian president mohammed morsi prodded in intense phone call by president obama appeared on tv to appeal for calm. in yemen for what the u.s. officials called precautionary regions, fast team of marines arrived in the cakapoorcapital sanaa.

tripoli, the thugs ransacked and set fire to western food chains. in all, three dozen locals from western europe to south asia witnessed islamic unrest directed at the west. >> this is a political, not a religious problem. we have countries that have had civil wars and that don't yet have a consolidated government to ensure peace and security on their own territory. >> back in washington, closed door briefing by cia director david petraeus left members of the house intelligence committee reassured on one count. >> i'm confident that the u.s. government is doing its best to protect the embassies. >> secretary of state clinton remembering her fallen comrades vowed to do just that. >> we owe it to those four men to continue the long hard work of diplomacy. and we will under the president's leadership, keep taking steps to protect our personnel around the world. >> we can report to you where the embassy riots are concerned that all u.s. personnel are safe and

accounted for. however, we can also report two people are confirmed dead, several injured in that attack at catch leatherneck which we told you in afghanistan. a final note, president obama tote formally notified house speaker john boehner of military deployment of yemen and libya, saying the groups are armed for combat but expect it will be a precautionary measure. >> bret: james rosen live at the state department. thank you. of course, the worst of the attacks was against the consulate in libya over the past few days. four americans were killed. including the ambassador. today, they came home. here is senior white house foreign affairs correspondent wendell goler. >> reporter: in solemn ceremony, bodies of ambassador chris stevens and three other americans killed in the attack on the benghazi consulate returned to this country. president and secretary of state attended, the victim family members asked not to be shown. mrs. clinton said the four americans gave their lives for the country and the values.

the deaths are a loss for the arab spring. >> the people of egypt, libya, yemen and tunisia did not trade the tyranny of a dictator for tyranny of a mob. >> meanwhile, as violent protesters of the anti-islam film spread to u.s. missions in other muslim countries, the white house denied a report there had been warnings of the benghazi attack. >> the story is absolutely wrong. we were not aware of any actionable intelligence indicating that an attack on the u.s. mission in benghazi was planned or imminent. >> officials say it's still unclear if the attack was triggered by film or time to coincide with the 9/11 anniversary or both. and for a second day in a row they sent a message to the arab streets to try and explain to people more accustomed to dictators than democracy, that the u.s. government had nothing to do with the film. >> it can be difficult to understand in some countries why the united states can't simply eliminate this kind of expression.

but as you know, it's in the absolute core of our being as americans that we allow freedom of expression. >> carney said that was not an apology. late today revealed the u.s. had asked youtube to review the controversial film, hoping, though not asking it be blocked globally as it has been in egypt and libya. aides deny the president re-election campaign interferes with his daily foreign policy briefings or the written briefings are less effective than hearing from the senior advisors in person. egypt's leader controlled in forceful term of the obligation to protect diplomatic mission. libya's leader who quickly condemned the attack and lost some of his own security forces in them. officials feel did not need scolding. mr. obama told the victims' family members the u.s. will not pull back from the world. >> we will never stop working for dignity and freedom that every person deserves. whatever their creed. whatever their faith.

>> the president's aide say u.s. will continue to help transition to democracy from the arab spring, but where it's violent like in syria the prospect of deeper u.s. involvement is more remote than it was four days ago. bret? >> bret: wendell goler live on the north lawn. thank you. republicans are undeterred by media criticism of their criticism of how the president is handling the situation. chief political correspondent carl cameron say today they brought an opportunity for people to come together. >> in the last few moments, the bodies of four individuals who were killed in the service of our nation were brought back to the united states, and welcomed home. and played in hearses -- placed in hearses. one reason we delayed my coming out, i wanted to make sure and have my hand over my heart. >> in ohio, where rain-soaked crowd waiting for hours to hear from him, mitt romney suspended his foreign policy criticism of the president for a patriotic moment as the ceremony for those americans

killed in benghazi, libya was underway near washington. >> i'd ask that you might each place your hand over your heart in recognition of the bloodshed for freedom and take a moment of silence together. >> a brief respite from a partisan battle featuring a romney aide who said of the president's inaccurate statement that egypt is not a u.s. ally, "the president can't even keep track of who is our ally or not. this is amateur hour." which prompted team obama to fire back "the romney campaign continues to shamelessly politicize a sensitive international situation." at the values summit in washington, paul ryan slammed the president on social issues. made the g.o.p. case against the government overreach and wasteful spending and laid the deteriorating situation in north africa and the middle east at the president's feet. >> only by the confident exercise of american influence are eel and violence overcome -- evil and violence overcome. that's how we keep problems abroad from becoming crisis. that is what keeps the peace. that is what we will have in a

romney-ryan administration. >> romney is escalating the economic attack. he opposes the fed's new qe3 stimulus attempt to jump-start growth a third time by what romney says amounts to a short-term sugar high by printing more money. more proof of how bad the obama economy has gotten. >> there will not be a second term. we can't afford him for a second term. >> linking foreign policy to domestic job losses, romney accused the president of being soft on china unfair trade and labor practices and costing ohio hundreds of thousands of jobs. >> this cannot go on. i'll call china a currency manipulator and stop them in their tracks from killing american jobs. >> senior romney foreign policy and political aides say he is not backing away from, nor toning down his criticism of president obama's foreign policy. in fact, they say before the end of the month he will address the clinton global initiative and have further foreign policy remarks to make there. and there is discussion of another foreign policy speech

that would take just before or during next month's big debate run. bret? >> bret: carl cameron traveling with governor romney in ohio. carl, thank you. why is one suburban d.c. community putting up cameras to watch its cameras? that's later in the grapevine. up next, in depth, what is going wrong with security at american diplomatic posts in the middle east and north africa? [ male announcer ] this is anna, her long day teaching the perfect swing begins with back pain and a choice. take advil, and maybe have to take up to four in a day. or take aleve, which can relieve pain all day with just two pills. good eye.

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tori's life is one of nearly a million changed by donations from people like you. send your love to the rescue. donate today. >> bret: we're going to talk more about the top story, the anti-american uproar in the middle east, targeting embassies and consulate. but let's concentrate on the security arrangement, what happened is going wrong. we're joined by retired army vice chief of staff, jack keen. general, thank you for being here. >> good to be here. >> bret: what do we know about the security around ambassador stevens? we know it wasn't enough. but we're hearing it was the local element of it, the libyan forces just melt away awy

essentially. they just went away. >> a couple things we do know, libyan security is major interest in the country. if you ask the libyan people one top concern would be security. the host country security, which we used to have to protect the u.s. property, embassy and consulate in libya is not effective. that is number one. number two, at the consulate there were no marines to provide internal security. they're at the embassy. at the consulate itself, normally i think we would have diplomatic service, security details to protect it. i don't know if they were present. this much we do know, just by looking at the pictures, the people in that consulate were in a firefight using military terms, outgunned, out armed and numbers truly make a difference in a fight like that. despite people who may have a lot of skill, if your opponent has time, ammunition and considerably more weapons that is probably going to move in their favor. that's probably what happened here.

>> bret: volatile place like libya, which clearly is and there are armed groups all around, it's almost like iraq or afghanistan, where those embassies have to provide really firm security around the ambassador. and you know that. around iraq and afghanistan. they hire not even local security guards. they get nationals have other countries. mongolians and other countrys to work so they don't get paid off to get out of there. >> guest: baghdad, and kabul are the gold standard in terms of defending embassy people and staff and consuls and certainly in the embassy, itself. the reality is, we would not say this, but we know the situation is so volatile and the threat is so high in those countries that are own security forces capable of defending the institution, regardless of the capacity of the security forces. security forces grew in capacity over the years and they were able to hem us. i think when we determine the

investigation of what took place here we will find out that we should have had a much largeer and capable security force of our own, protecting that consulate. >> bret: how does this happen, do you think, general, on 9/11? the 11th anniversary on 9/11. it's libya, it's volatile. you have an ambassador who just was not protected. >> guest: yeah. it's a tragedy. the investigation i'm convinced will get to the bot of the of it. clearly security was inaccurate. it's outrageous that armed goons like that could penetrate our facility, kill four americans inside and wound a bunch of others and just destroy the place. >> bret: the marines you talk about, you hear about the detachment, the different embassies. really, they're about the internal part of embassy. not a major protection of the embassy, itself. >> guest: absolutely. it's internal to the embassy. still there if something penetrates. when the ambassador is on the move or one of his staff is on

the move, they have personal security details. they usually also have diplomatic service detail protecting the external part of embassy. sometimes the contract people protect external part of the embassy. the degree of threat will also drive the security in the area. when we lost the two embassies in africa in 1998 there was a whole reassessment of all the embassies. they were brought up through a common tough standard based on the threat. >> bret: pentagon wassed a mant and bleeps were adamant that the whole story about the -- marines were adamant that the story about the marines not having ammo or loaded weapons was not true. they shot it down right away. this is about cairo, egypt. i want to get quickly about policy. what does this say about the obama administration policy in the middle east? and north africa, in libya, the whole region? >> i think it calls for reassessment. the policy we had, prior to 9/11, was, in fact, contained radical islam.

poe 9/11, president bush put in confrontation. any administration would have. what is happening slowly, but actually happening seriously is that we have been disengaging. iraq is an example. afghanistan with a timetable. the policy are the iranians. clearly all of our friends in the area are so concerned about the iranians, and our policy of generally appeasing them, weak economic sanctions and gradually leading to nuclear weapons is their number one issue. you are talking to the leaders in the region. they will tell you where is the united states? what is happening? you're disengaging. even in libya, where we are right now with the crisis, the fact we pulled out early our forces, and didn't see that through and left it up to the nato forces to do, we were in a military stalemate for almost four months as a result of the fact we gave up the lead in that operation with all of our resources. all of those leaders in middle

east watched this closely. >> bret: before i let you go, general, camp leatherneck, helmand province under attack. two dead right now. afghanistan, very dangerous place. >> guest: it remains there. i was at leatherneck a few months ago and helmand province and kandahar province have been turned around in our favor. we have momentum. they still can hurt us, obviously, as they did here. >> bret: thank you for your time. >> guest: good seeing you. >> bret: still ahead, we go live to cairo for update there. first, cutting right down to bone and right up to the fiscal cliff. i'm jessica and this is my emergen-c. keeping up with the kids is tough, so i drink emergen-c. with vitamin c for immune support and b vitamins for natural energy, i'm ready for whatever they get into. get your free sample at myemergenc.com. stay healthy and feel the good. till you finish your vegetables. [ clock ticking ]

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>> bret: several economic reports out tonight. retail sales up .9 of percentage point in august,

mainly from higher gasoline prices. those drove up consumer prices .6 of a point. industrial production fell by 1.2%. the most in three years. the dow finished up the week by gaining 53-1/2. the s&p 500 was up 6. the nasdaq ended 28 ahead. the egan jones credit rating agency downgraded the rating on u.s. debt one level from a.a. to a.a.aa.-minus. it says the federal reserve plan to bind mortgage bonds each month will hurt the u.s. economy, reduce the value of the dollar and raise the price of oil. as we told you, the u.s. has also gone from the top of the global competitiveness ratin four years ago to number seven right now. tonight we have a better idea what cuts the government could make to comply with the deal to cut the deficit by $1 trillion. chief national correspondent jim angle on the package of cuts known as the sequester.

>> the white house explained today how it would implement $1.2 trillion in cuts over ten years starting with $110 billion next year alone. half from domestic programs, half from defense spending. some programs would be excepted such as the veteran benefit and medical care and salary of military personnel. >> you certainly don't want people serving the country overseas to see a pay cut for no apparent reason. president will except the military personnel account. >> aside from that and other exemptions in the law white house sid it would cut defense spendingedly 9.4% and nondefense spending by 8.#%. some think a deal may be possible before the new year, military contractors can't wait. >> i talk to a lot of defense con track fors for instance who aren't hiring or in some cases are laying people off in anticipation of there being less money available for the programs. >> there is a requirement that employers gived a vance notice and it would come ironically a couple of days before the election.

that could complicate it for the white house. >> especially virginia home to defense contractor. leon panetta repeatedly warned about the effects of a sequester he calls nutty. >> a disaster with the defense deparent as far as the budget is concern and the ability to respond to the threat that are out there. in a conference call the administration official went to some length to blame republicans for sequester, though the white house first suggested it. officials describe the cuts as "deeply destructive" and say the white house stands ready to search for alternative, they emphasize would have to be balanced; meaning, tax increases. >> to stop it, you have to take steps to reduce the deficit. you have to raise taxes and cut spending. that is what has to happen. >> the white house is going to say we have to have revenue raisers, but the white house to say it's entirely congress' fault misses the point. all parties are complicit in this breakdown.

>> house republicans passed al alternative cuts but the democrats wouldn't take it up. while it would cut defense spending 11% over a decade, nondefense spending would go up 35%. it looks like several more rods to this debate, bret. >> bret: more about it. >> i think so. >> thanks. judge in wisconsin struck down a state law that effectively ended collective bargaining rights for most public workers. that law was championed by republican governor scott walker. the judge ruled the law violates the state and the u.s. constitution. it was not clear if the ruling means the law is immediately suspended. walker just released a statement moments ago saying, "the people of wisconsin clearly spoke on june 5. now they are ready to move on. sadly a liberal activist judge in dane county wants to go backwards and take away the law-making responsibilities of the legislature and the governor. we are confident that the state will ultimately prevail and the appeals process."

the president of the chicago school board says the district and teachers union have agreed on a framework to end the nearly week-long strike. more than 350,000 students have now missed five days of classes, now no. word which side compromise. the union delegates must still vote to end that strike. the president campaign team uses communist propaganda against romney? soviet style propaganda from russian president vladimir putin. the grapevine is next. ♪ one, two, three, four ♪ ♪ you say ♪ flip it over and replay ♪ we'll make everything okay ♪ walk together the right way ♪ do, do, do, do

>> bret: now fresh pickings from the political grapevine. obama deputy campaign manager stephanie cutter is using china state media outlet to criticize mitt romney. she tweeted, "must read china shinwa, slams romney for making his money off chinese companies before running for prez. #hypocrisy." reince priebus shot back "offensive than the obama campaign would use the xinhua to promote the campaign." weekly standard notes even democrats are upset about it. scott paul, executive director of the labor business partnership tweets as a democrat, i'm horrified that democrats would use xinha, official mouthpiece of bay shing regime to -- bay shing regime. >> bret: vladimir putin claims he's not the rugged

adventureer he is made out to be. the photos with putin and animals were staged according to putin. for years critics mocked it showing putin with whales and tigers and everything in between saying it's soviet-style propaganda. turns out putin says he did it all to draw the public attention to conservation projects near to his heart. finally, postmodernist rejoice. meta moment. in an effort to thwart vandals of speed cameras, officials are mounting cameras to watch those cameras. police say the speed cameras which they believe are necessary for public safety have been set on fire and shot and cost $30 to $100,000 a pop to replace. but now the question becomes what cameras will watch the cameras that watch the camer cameras? we could do this all day. ♪ ♪

our top story at the bottom of the hour. violence erupted at several diplomatic posts in middle east and africa. marine fast team is now on route to sudan to help secure the american embassy there. i've been told that few moments ago. two people reported dead in protest outside the u.s. embassy in tunisia, one was killed near the american embassy in cairo. correspondent leland vittert is once again live in the egyptian capital where it's saturday morning. hello again, leland. >> reporter: bret, still this morning we are hearing a ringing shot of tear gas canisters and we have rubber bullets fired in the crowd. reporting now that one person has died, in the protest in egypt. egyptian security officials have erected large barricades to keep any protesters from getting toward the u.s. embassy. daytime prayers ended here friday at noon. the crowd was a couple of thousand people carrying large

posters of usama bin laden. throwing rocks. throwing molotov cocktails despite the egyptian president mohammed morsi saying it was unislamic to attack foreign embassies here. that is something they did not need. nighttime here, the police have dug in their positions against the protesters. they are demanding u.s. ambassador leave. local media reports she is still here, arriving in the country today. the protesters shouting with our soul, our blood, we defend you prophet muhammad. the difference here with this crowd 18 months ago, bret, when we saw in the re-lution is back then they were talking about freedom, democracy, how much they love america. tonight, bret, that crowd is chanting "death to america." back to you. >> bret: leland vittert live in cairo. leland, thank you. israel prime minister is suggesting that his country may not be able to rely on the u.s. to act against iran's nuclear program. prime minister benjamin netanyahu says in a print interview, israel may have to strike acran without american support. prevent iran developing a

nuclear weapon. iran of course denies it's making a bomb. dealing with the anti-american uproar across the middle east and north africa. we will discuss it with the fox all-stars when we get back. energy is being produced to power our lives. while energy development comes with some risk, north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing generations of cleaner-burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below fresh water sources within self-contained well systems.

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after all, when you're going the distance, it's nice to have the experience and commitment to go along with you. keep dreaming. keep doing. go long. the anniversary of 9/11 would be a time you want extra security around diplomat and military posts? >> let's be clear. these protests were in reaction to a video that had spread on the region. >> in benghazi? >> we don't know. we don't know otherwise. we have no information to suggest that it was a preplanned attack. the unrest we have seen around the region has been in reaction a video that many muslims find offensive. while the violence is reprehensible and unjustified,

it is not reaction to 9/11 anniversary we know of. or u.s. policy. >> the group around the benghazi post was well-armed, well coordinated attack. you think it was spontaneous protest against a movie? >> the unrest around the region has been in response to this video. this was a calculated act of terror on the part of a small group of jihaddists. not a mob that sacked the embassy. >> bret: that was the back and forth today about the attack. in libya. and today, solemn ceremony, bodies of ambassador chris stevens and three others arrived back at the joint base andrews. this was a moving ceremony. the president and the secretary of state attended and spoke. we'll start there. bring in panel. steve hayes, senior writer for the "weekly standard." susan miligan for u.s. news

and world report. send syndicated contro columnist charles krauthammer. this video was first posted on youtube in july. the trailer, the beginning, posted in july. it has been the talk of the administration that this is the center. you talk to senator mccain and others briefed op capitol hill and they say the attack in libya was a different animal, that this was totally different. but yet you heard jay carney up at the white house. >> i have to say i find it extraordinary that jay carney would try to argue that the, these protests taking place on the is 11th anniversary of 9/11 were merely coincidental. one of the things when i hear him make the statement, trying to suggest that that wasn't the case, that they weren't planned for 9/11 made me do a

double-take. i can't believe they are making the argument. the problem for the administration at this point they are now embracing the argument they earlier rejected at the beginning of week. the statement came out at embassy of cairo and talked about hurting the feelings of muslims the administration reacted not quickly but reacted eventually and said we don't agree with that stat statement. that discuss not repped the view of the u.s. government and it doesn't represent the view of the white house. now in effect you have jay carney and hillary clinton today at the service say this is all because of the video, that it is in fact about the hurt feelings of muslims. which is extraordinary turn-about in the argument. >> bret: it's starting to turn less from politics and more on what is the security

and the policy? if you look at the google map out there today of the pinpoints -- i think we have the graphics -- of all the blue spots, these are protests, active protests. not to mention what we heard in the past hour of the attack in afghanistan, which happens. two american service members killed. look at all of those dots. >> extraordinary. it can be both things. i think there was something planned here. people don't show up for rpgs with a spontaneous demonstration. but the video -- i don't want to call it a film or insult the film industry has something to do with it. it took a while. dubbed over to arabic. it's on the internet. in the middle east, you can't overstate how much people react to the prophet muhammad being insulted. if here if there was an analogous situation we might say that's rude but we couldn't get wound up over it. it's a different environment there. and it catches fire. people in certain countrys

looking at other countrys saying they when over the wall and didn't get shot down. we'll try that, too. all of this pent-up frustration. all of these things together. it's hard to stop and hard to do, security at the embassy you have u.s. marines and local people as well. you can't just shoot in a crowd in a foreign country. it's not that simple. i sympathize with them. it's very difficult. >> bret: yeah. but prior to 9/11 when you go up against the 11th anniversary and in a situation where a volatile country like libya, one would think the security would be better than what ambassador stevens had. >> that is exactly right. go beyond the libya attack tonight hear carney talk about this as as a result of a movie or result of frustration, provocation for the frustration are a constant in the middle east. they have been there for 1,000 years. now american embassies and

american schools are a flame in the region. why? we heard from general keen. he is a strategist. there is a region, they look around to friends of america and enemy of america. they so the united states that dominated the region since 1970. when kissinger did the strategic shift. egypt from a pro sew yet enemy to pro-american ally. we have dominated the region. we are now in retreat. obama, himself, said we're doing a pivot out of the middle east to the pacific. proclaimed the tide of war is over. he took us out of iraq. we're leaving no residual, of course he announced withdrawal from afghanistan on a timetable. when it came to arab spring, he was indecisive. in iran he would not support protesters. libya half in and half out. everybody in the region understands that america had been the dominant element. in withdrawal is not

interested. arab are apoplectic about iran going nuclear, not just israel. now our friends are looking around saying do we have anybody who is supporting it? the extreme jihaddist and the moderate jihaddist in the region saying this is our time. that is what is -- i'll give you one example of the withdrawal of the influence. syria. does anybody in the region ask what is the american position? everybody wants to know what russia is doing and thinking. and what supplies it's saying, what is iran doing. what is hezbollah doing? america is irrelevant. in the region, the word that used to be important is now null and void. >> bret: the messages from the president and the secretary of state at this service were specific. >> their sacrifice will never be forgotten. we will bring to justice those who took them from us.

you will stand fast against the violence in diplomatic missions. >> we have seen rage and violence over awful internet video we had nothing to do with. people in libbia, tunisia, did not trade the tyranny of a dictator for the tyranny of a mob. >> bret: right place to make the messages? >> look, i mean, one is inclined to give them breathing room. they are making difficult messages in a difficult place. i certainly would not have further elevated the video. one of the problems from the very beginning was dignifying of this obscure video that nobody had seen. nobody who is going to be attending the protest had seen the video or knew much of it. the fact that the embassy tweeted about it, later put out a statement about it, elevated it then. the fact it was discussed in

remarks later, from the white house, and now from the secretary of state. elevates it further. it raises the question is the white house going to have to now step up and denounce every one of these kind of videos? you have cranks making these videos or others like them on a daily basis. is the white house, that's their business to police these things and denounce them? because we're afraid people will storm the embassy? >> bret: you know what? we need to talk more about this. and the politics of this. the friday lightning round was next. we'll talk about your vote. on the other side of the break. but we'll continue this discussion. keep it here. all multivitamins give me the basics. they claim to be complete. only centrum goes beyond. providing more than just the essential nutrients, so i'm at my best. centrum. always your most complete.

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a president who skips half of his intelligence briefings but finds time to play more than 100 rounds of golf. hits the campaign trail after a u.s. ambassador is murdered in the line of duty. snubs a vital u.s. ally's request for emergency meeting to discuss another threat, while scheduling celebrity rundraisers and a letterman appearance. most important for any president is protect our nation and its citizens. mr. president, it's time to show up for work. >> bret: that is the latest superpac ad supporting mitt romney. the american crossroads airing an ad trying to support mitt romney. this is the friday lightning round but we want to talk about the politics of this whole thing. your choice this week, by the way in the vote was the next foreign hot spot. we'll do it at the very end. susan, start with you. that ad, your reaction, and the whole politics deal? >> i don't know that they want to draw attention to the reaction to the episode

because it puts attention back on mitt romney. the first thing i thought when i saw him give remarks was ill-informed and the ill-timed remarks he wanted to make this election a referendum instead of a choice. he is. he's making referendum on himself. the fact he doubled down makes it worse. it will shore up the base of people who dislike obama. but they don't need to draw attention to this. you have to be very, very careful what you say as an american. >> bret: but what -- let me -- you make good points about what many in the press have been saying in the past two days. what about the substance of that ad, about the intelligence briefings, about the president going to vegas after the -- is there something that sticks there? >> well, romney's campaigning after this happened. i don't think anybody -- does anybody think that obama is not paying attention to -- >> romney is not the president. >> i understand. but it's not as though -- does anybody really think that

obama is not paying attention to this crisis? >> he is not doing anything? as he said anything? >> he has been saying things all day. >> he is also campaigning. there is this idea in press romney is the only making political comments or campaigning or doing anything political. it's total, complete utter nonsense. david axelrod morning of 9/11 sent a tweet hitting romney for fundraising. bill clinton held a rally for obama to partially attack republicans and romney on medicare. they put a statement late they're night. president obama released ad attacking on abortion on 9/11. you the obama trip to las vegas. day after the service. president going to the dnc. you have him e-mailing supports asking for help. this has been political the entire time. the idea that mitt romney is the one coming in and being political. when the president has been doing this and the come pain has been doing this at every turn is preposterous. >> the problem is this.

it's being political, we all under romney's comments for being about domestic politics. people overseas don't see it that way when a prominent american gets up there and says you know this was an apology, that reinforces a very, very wrong, very misguided, somewhat irrational belief that somehow the u.s. government sanction video like this. people really -- >> it's not an apology. >> bret: charles? >> why was the embassy stormed in sudan? >> because -- >> bret: the german embassy. >> germany wasn't involved in any way. speaking to the mob and appeasing it won't work. especially when et doesn't know which country it should attack. the real problem here is even is looking at this through the prism of the campaign. yes, this is an election. but american interests are on fire. all over the middle east and north africa. the president is absence. he hasn't spoken or explained the policy. the press, this is malpractice

on part of press, obsessed with one statement romney made. not asking the president what has happened to the outreach you made at cairo, much ral respect, the new beginning. what is happening in the middle east, what are you doing about it? can you explain how your policy efforts after three years has resulted in this catastrophe? that is a question that the president has been asking. he is the president. the fact it hasn't been asked is simply astonishing. >> bret: five seconds. next foreign hot spot? >> iran/israel. israel now has a back to the wall. we heard netanyahu look as if he is distressed. >> long five seconds. they tuned for special tribute to americans killed.

>> bret: we usual whether i leave the show with a kicker, something funny. we could have use it this week. last night we had a tribute to neil armstrong. tonight we feel compelled to leave with you the homecoming

ceremony for the four american culprits who returned home from libya. we will always continue to be fair, balanced, and unafraid. >> almighty god, creator of us all and lover of the human race, we commend to you our brothers chris and sean and glen and tyrone. give them your peace. amen. >> in the last few -- if the last few days teach us anything, let it just be this, that this work and the member and women who risk their lives to do it are at the heart of what makes america great and good. >> greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. the flag they served under now carries them home. may god bless the memory of these men who laid down their lives for us all.